Baby boxes programme: heading into 2018

One of our biggest developments in 2018 will be the launch of our new baby box programme! Here's an update on what's happening right now...

Thanks to your generous donations to our first ever Christmas campaign (£4884 raised so far!), we're kicking off the work to launch this brand new Child.org programme.

Charity Apprentice Alumnus Anne-Liese has joined the Child.org team to work one day a week on the programme planning and she has put together an initial plan proposal. This is still likely to be subject to further iterations and changes - but we wanted to share with you the basic plan so far!

The aim of this pilot is to find out just how effective the baby box is for mothers living in informal settlements ("slums") in Nairobi. We know that encouraging mums to attend antenatal sessions will have an impact on a baby's health, there's plenty of evidence for that already! So the Child.org team have been deciding on what to measure during this pilot - as handing out 500 boxes is a great opportunity to get some really useful data.

Between February and July we'll be giving out the boxes, and measuring health outcomes of the babies. We'll be monitoring three groups of young mums:

Group 1: A control group of mums who have not been given a box

Group 2: Mums who are provided with a box

Group 3: Mums who are provided with a box and attend an extra educational session

Each group will be monitored for three months with surveys. We'll also be collaborating with a student from Bristol university who is conducting her own additional research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and the impact the box can have on babies in informal settlements.

The questions we want to answer as a result of the pilot include:

Are the mums using the box as intended, for their baby to sleep in?

If they are - is that having the desired impact upon the health of the baby?

What added impact does an educational session have on the health of the baby?

We expect to gain a fantastic amount of research and data from this pilot, and very much look forward to sharing the results! When you consider how useful that information will be, to Child.org and other organisations too, it's clear that the long-term impact your donations will have is going to be pretty impressive.

(The photo on this blog was taken at one of the workshops we ran last month in Nairobi, where we consulted with many young mums on the design and contents of the box.)